Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a practice management and client development system (see article below), an online marketing service for local listings, a wireless mobile scanner, a business intelligence service for law firms, and a free iPad magazine. Don't miss the next issue.

A Practice Management System That Costs Just One Dollar

After the initial breakthrough of organizing contacts and calendars by client and matter, practice management systems have experienced a number of major inflection points such as information sharing over a local network, integration of billing, and of course Internet connectivity and entirely cloud-based applications. But most practice management systems continue to have an inward focus. In other words, they help you manage all the work in your firm. But that work doesn't just appear out of thin air. A new practice management system has both an inward and outward focus with tools that help you attract new clients and better serve all your clients.

The Killer Feature
Probably because I often find myself sitting in front of an $18 glass of barolo or franciacorta, I always marvel at how little tortilla chips cost. But even tortilla chips at $2 per bag at my local Trader Joe's can't beat Total Attorneys, which costs just $1 per user per month.

This price imposes no limits on any of the inward features, and even includes all of the outward features except for three — lead generation, payment processing, and virtual receptionist.

Other Notable Features
Those of you in consumer practice areas such as bankruptcy, criminal defense, divorce, personal injury, social security, and taxation can take advantage of Total Attorneys' lead generation service. You enter your practice areas and preferred zip codes, after which leads begin appearing in Total Attorneys under the Leads tab. You can adjust your settings anytime, and turn off this tool when you have enough business.

Total Attorneys also offers a secure client portal for agreements, communications, and document sharing. For example, you can have clients sign a retainer agreement. You can also provide clients with a collection of all the documents in their case that they can access anytime. The client portal doesn't require any plugins such as Flash so it also works on the iPad and smartphones. You can enable it on a client by client basis.

The calendar straddles the line between inward and outward features. It has all the functions you would expect, but you can also invite a client to a call or meeting via the calendar. And if you enable it, clients can schedule meetings with you. Similarly, Total Attorneys can log billable time and generate invoices, but it can also process online credit card payments that clients can initiate directly from your bills.

Regarding pure inward features, the Matter Overview Page serves as a dashboard for a specific matter, displaying all information such as open and close dates, lawyers, documents, billing records, etc. Contacts also serve as a dashboard. In addition to contact information, you'll see an activity log of appointments, documents, email, notes, etc.

Other features include bulk email and email templates for client alerts and newsletters (replies go to your regular email address), document management with access controls, and a tool for creating and tracking proposals (quotes).

What Else Should You Know?
Total Attorneys runs in any web browser. There's also an iPad and iPhone app. As noted above, you can use most functions for $1 per user per month. Leads cost $50 to $107 each, payment processing costs $35 per month, and a virtual receptionist costs $199 per 50 calls. Learn more about Total Attorneys Practice Management Platform.

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